Day 8

It decided to rain last night, and I decided to not put the rainfly on the tent. Actually, I hadn't put the rainfly on at all so far, so I finally got a chance to do it, stumbling around in the dark in the middle of the night as the rain started to fall. Luckily it started gradually, and I woke up right away, so nothing got wet inside the tent. And everything stayed dry until morning. Not exactly clean though, and now my formerly-pristine tent has that wonderful gritty, sandy, campground-dirt all around the edges. Still, I think I'd rather take rain over mosquitos, and after the first few nights it's been almost completely mosquito-free.

So after spending a little more time than usual to pack up, it was back on friendly US 25. I rode the ten miles or so into Corbin, and found a "Dixie Cafe" that said "Open". I walked in and asked the people lounging in the back "Do you serve breakfast here?" "Practice?" "No, breakfast!" "Oh, yeah, we've got a breakfast bar right here." Must be some kind of language barrier! Still, I can't help myself from talking like a Southerner down here. There's just something about talking to the people here that makes the words come out with that accent (or at least my interpretation of it). They probably think I sound like a moron, or am making fun of them, but I really can't help it! Anyway, the self-serve breakfast bar was a pretty sad-looking affair set up in the corner, but it was all-you-can-eat and actually pretty good.

Overall, today was actually a fairly flat day (I think the climbing number is accurate). Roads that follow rivers are good. Roads that follow railroads are good. US 25 did both for large stretches. Early on I got stopped by a freight train at a crossing, and then raced it the 10 miles into Corbin. I passed it up about halfay there, but then it caught me at the end.

In Williamsburg, I stopped at the county library. Libraries seem to be few and far between around here, and this one was woefully short on books; I initially thought the main area was the children's section! Anyway, they had Internet access so I was at least able to do a bit of research that way. I had already gotten rained on at this point (heavy, but fairly brief), and I hadn't dried out too much so hopefully I didn't make too much of a mess.

Then a little farther on down the road, I crossed into my fourth state, Tennessee! Went through the town of Jellico, and then it was off for an extended jaunt through the hills along the river. Unlike some of the sections in Kentucky, where there were often homes regularly spaced along these country roads, this one had much more of a "national park", wilderness feel to it, which was a lot nicer. And Tennessee seems to do without rumble strips. Came out of the hills at the town of La Follette. It was about 5:30, and I decided to stop at a McDonald's for dinner. There was a lot of interest in the Vols game on TV. I'm not much of a fan of college football, but here (and I'd seen people flying the orange flags all over TN), it was a very comforting sign of civilization. I guess maybe it's because people have to know about college to know about college football. The girl cleaning tables said she liked my computer. I said it's really nice to take on the bike, and she asked if I rode my bike everywhere. "heh...no!" I said, and it was only minute later that I realized I pretty much DO ride my bike everywhere.

There was a state park campground (Cove Lake State Park) at mile 75. I went in and checked it out, and it seemed ok, but my main destination was Norris Dam State Park, which was recommended in "The Best of Tent Camping", so I called ahead to see if they still had sites available. They did, so I continued on. I wouldn't be cooking, and it's always nice riding in the cooler (79 degree) temperatures of late afternoon, and I had a good tailwind (which I'd had most of the day, finally!), and it was only 10 miles, so it seemed like a good idea. Well, the final 2.5 miles had a 500 foot climb. No big deal, and not too unexpected. What WAS unexpected was that the campground was about another 2 miles into the park, along a really steep winding road that went both up and down. It's going to be a hell of a wake-up call just getting out of the park tomorrow morning. And after that, the campsite doesn't seem all that great; it's nice enough, but there's no separate tent area like at Fort Boonsborough (also recommended in that book). So I probably would have been better off just staying at Cove Lake. Or just pitching my tent somewhere in the vast state park grounds I passed on the road in. I only have the indexes from the book with me, so all I can assume is that this was one of the places recommended more for the park than for the camping, because it does seem like a really nice park.

I'm still pretty amazed at my energy levels. Even though some of those climbs in the last couple miles felt like they were about to kill me, once I reached the campground it took hardly any time to get back to feeling normal. Every night I pretty much stop the bike and immediately get unpacked and set up the tent without really taking a break at all. I'm certainly not bouncing off the walls, and I walk around a little slowly, but I was half-expecting to spend some nights sleeping on the dirt because that's where I'd collapse and I wouldn't be able to get back up again.